The health care field is constantly undergoing change. Recently, these changes have included increases in responsibility from physician to the nurse and from the nurse to LPN's and non-licensed personnel. LPN's and non-licensed personnel increasingly are performing more complex tasks/interventions. For example, non-licensed personnel may now carry the primary responsibility for bathing patients and patient hygiene. Patient baths frequently are performed with pre-packaged disposable washcloths. A plastic package of disposable washcloths for use in bathing a patient may be purchased from Sage Products, Inc. Some examples of packages of disposable washcloths are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,029,809 to Skiba et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,906,278 to Ponsi et al., both of which are incorporated by reference in their entirety herein.
Recent healthcare initiatives such as the Institutes for Healthcare Improvement's (IHI) ‘Protecting 5 Million Lives Campaign’ have highlighted the importance of daily skin inspections. The IHI suggests that in ideal circumstances staff should incorporate a skin inspection into their work, every time they assess a patient. For example, the IHI's guidelines for preventing pressure ulcers propose that all levels of staff should be educated to inspect the skin any time they are assisting the patient, such as when bathing. Upon recognition of any change in skin integrity, caregivers are to notify staff so that appropriate interventions can be put in place. In addition, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) recently recommended that skin assessments be performed on each patient on admission to rule out skin injury that was present upon admission to a facility. The CMS also has stated that skin ulcers are preventable and that treatments for skin ulcers developed during care for other issues will not be reimbursed as of October 2008.
The use of non-licensed personnel or other individuals in performing care such as patient cleansing has distanced the more trained medical professional from the patient during such care procedures. For example, while bathing the patient, a care provider is in an excellent position to observe the skin condition of the patient. A care provider such as a non-licensed personnel or other individual may not, however, be in a position to address or provide care for areas of concern observed on the patient's skin. In addition, the care provider may have obstacles in providing information regarding areas of concern to a second care provider such as a doctor or nurse. The first and second care providers may speak different languages, or the first care provider may not directly interact with a second care provider. It would be useful to provide something that can aid a first care provider in providing feedback or hand-off of information to a second care provider regarding observations noted while providing care to the patient. A product that can assist in the communication of the state of a patient's condition would be useful. Moreover, even where care is provided by nurses or doctors, additional systems to assist in the communication and hand-off of information regarding the patient's condition would be useful.